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Kevin Clearie’s path to becoming a Chief Procurement Officer started like many of his CPO peers in the market. Kevin graduated with a dual undergraduate degree in M.I.S. and Business (technical education) and soon found himself working for the procurement groups at AT&T, Lucent, and LSI (experience in world-class organizations). As his career progressed, Kevin continued his education with an executive MBA and other graduate classes in marketing and logistics. About fifteen years into his career, he became part of the Lucent team, under noted CPO, Jose Mejia, that dramatically changed the company’s business model and helped turn it around. This experience helped awaken the CPO within Clearie as he saw first-hand, the value of procurement in solving large business problems. With this foundation and experience, Clearie soon moved into broader operational roles where he held a large P&L responsibility. But, Clearie has always been a procurement guy at heart – “I tell people I always wanted to be a purchasing guy, for me it is a calling.”

Not surprisingly, Kevin is now back in procurement as the Vice President of Procurement at Essroc, the US subsidiary of the Italcementi Group, the world’s fifth-largest cement producer. In this role, Kevin reports to Essroc’s CEO who was previously the Head of Group Procurement at the parent company. Kevin believes that having a CEO who understands procurement has been invaluable and says that “CEOs and people in general tend to stay close to their comfort zone; most CEOs have had little to no exposure to procurement.” The same holds true for other business executives which may be one reason why Kevin believes that it is his interdisciplinary background and broad business education that have been his most valuable assets as a CPO. Whether he is partnering with the marketing team on a green initiative, engaging suppliers on their opinions of Essroc’s performance and the best opportunities to improve, or getting his team more engaged with the stakeholders who are not clear on the value proposition of procurement, Kevin believes it has been his communication, analytical, and relationship-building skills that have been critical to his success. “Relationship-building up and down the line is critical because procurement wants to intersect at some point with every group, so you must constantly sell the value proposition of the group. It is a job that is never done.”

The above case study was taken from our latest report which looks at the key qualifications, experience and characteristics needed to ascend to the role of Chief Procurement Officer – The report – Becoming a Chief Procurement Officer – is available by clicking on the title (registration required).

Tagged in: Ardent Partners Research, Chief Procurement Officer, CPO, CPOs on the Rise